New dental care system reverses enamel erosion process

on 7 August 2014

Unilever Oral Care has launched Regenerate Enamel Science – a new dental care system proven to reverse the early and invisible stages of the enamel erosion process.

The Regenerate Enamel Science system consists of an advanced toothpaste for daily brushing and a boosting serum (with two custom-fit mouth trays) for application at home, monthly for three consecutive days. When used in combination with the daily advanced toothpaste, the boosting serum increases the effectiveness of the toothpaste by 43%, enhancing the power of enamel regeneration.

Unilever Oral Care claims that Regenerate Enamel Science is first and only dental care system to form hydroxyapaptite with identical composition to underlying enamel mineral.

The dental care system, with its patented NR-5 technology, helps recover 82% of enamel hardness after three days of use.

An in situ study has found that the novel technology in Regenerate Enamel Science is effective in the mouth and is able to re-harden enamel significantly better than fluoride-only toothpaste (Joiner et al, 2014).

Retention

According to the 2009 Dental Health Survey, 86% of adults in England had 21 or more natural teeth. While this is a positive trend, it also presents a challenge. Dental tissues must now withstand greater exposure to daily acid attacks, which can lead to irreversible enamel loss, tooth wear and the prevalence of dental caries.

Inspired by research on bone repair technology, Unilever Oral Care scientists carried out both in vitro and in situ studies, which proved that calcium silicate can deposit onto sound and eroded enamel. Upon this discovery, the NR-5 technology was developed to augment the natural mineralisation processes of human saliva by providing a combination of calcium silicate and sodium phosphate, which help to form a fresh supply of hydroxyapatite that wraps and integrates onto teeth.

Professor Nicola West, an honorary consultant in periodontology, who was involved in the in vitro research on Regenerate Enamel Science system, says: ‘Erosive tooth wear by dietary acids now affects more than 50% of our young adults in the UK, which is a real dental health issue. These patients are concerned about their tooth wear, which often results in sensitive teeth. Dentists and patients find erosive tooth wear hard to manage and treatment solutions for it are limited. We now have new proven scientific evidence, published in high impact dental journals, showing that NR-5 technology works to remineralise the tooth, and this solution to tooth wear is fast acting and easy to use.’

Speaking about the technology that has been developed over the course of more than nine 9 years of research, Unilever’s oral care researcher, Fred Schäfer says: ‘The innovative mechanism of action of the calcium silicate and sodium phosphate in this novel dental care system provides enamel re-hardening that is significantly greater than with fluoride-only toothpaste. This new approach has been proven to help restore acid-challenged enamel.’

The scientific studies have been published in the June 2014 supplement of the Journal of Dentistry. A link to these studies can be found on the Regenerate Enamel Science website: www.RegenerateNR5.com.